The blog of Ben Storkamp. Alleged chef, part-time diehard Twins fan, full time television connoisseur.
Known authority on Freshy Freshington, Harold Dieterle and Hells Kitchen.

Sunday, April 30, 2006

The Return of Ralph

Finally got a chance to blog...Gwen spent, errrr, a good deal of time downloading every episode ever of Degrassi: The Next Generation. I think I saw the intro to that show literally 45 times.

Now, the three or so of you still reading this blog who were around last summer might remember my recaps of Hells Kitchen and my animosity towards eventual runner-up Ralph. Well, tonight he got his sixteenth minute as a challenger on Iron Chef America.

I've heard that on ICA the chef to be challenged is actually decided on ahead of time and the challenger doesn't necessarily have any actual input on the subject. If that's not true, Ralph probably made the right call challenging the most famous of the Iron Chefs, Bobby Flay. Hey, he'll probably get routed no matter who he goes up against, if he catches lightning in a bottle against Flay it oughtta be worth another fifteen minutes o' fame.

I didn't actually pay close attention to the episode itself. Barramundi, a type of pike, was the secret ingredient and fish battles always bore me. Especially since on ICA they won't show the chefs whacking off the heads of the still flailing creatures. Ralph showed that he really can cook, albeit with that Emeril-wannabe flair that so pissed me off in the first place. The only dish I remember is some cocktail that Bobby Flay made that appeared to be "several people sneezed in a glass", but turned out to be grapefruit juice or something.

In the end, Ralph was predictably slaughtered, by the count of 56 to 42. Still, turns out he's running his own restaurant. Which means he's actually doing better than the guy who wasted him in Hells Kitchen. But more on that later. Links must be dug up.

Things not mentioned in this episode: "Gordon Ramsay", The fact that Ralph was the runner-up on that show.